1. Field of the Invention
This invention generally relates to a card connector designed for the connection between an electronic apparatus, such as digital cameras, mobile telephones or the like and an IC card, more particularly, to a contacting structure of the card connector.
2. Description of the Prior Art
In recent years, the greater compactness and the greater functional advance for the electronic apparatuses such as the digital cameras, mobile telephones or the like have been pursued and realized. It is commonplace to enlarge storage capacity or extend various functions by incorporating an IC card containing the built-in CPU and the memory IC. Conventionally, it is common practice that the IC card to be loaded into the conventional card connector which is designed for the connection between an electronic apparatus and the IC card.
Generally speaking, the card connector is designed for permitting free insertion or removal of the IC card and is provided with a plurality of contacts, which are arranged therein for electrically contacting with the pads provided either on the surface or the back of the IC card, so that the IC card can be electrically connected with various signal processing circuit or the power source circuit on the side of the electronic apparatus.
In order to confirm whether the IC card is securely inserted into the card connector or not, in many conventional cases, two separate contact cooperating to form a card identification switch are provided at farthest end of the card connector. Take U.S. Patent application publication No. 2004/0113249 A1 for an example, the patent publication discloses a conventional card connector providing an insulative housing, a metal shield enclosing the insulative housing and a plurality of contacts being arranged in parallel with one another within the housing. Among the plurality of the contacts, there are two contacts for connecting with power source, two grounding contacts, a detect contact which is disposed at farthest end thereof and a number of signal contacts. One of the two grounding contacts is adjacent to the detect contact, which is the shortest contact among the above all contacts, while the detect contact is the longest contact among the above all contacts. When an electrical card is inserted into the card connector, the grounding contact first contact with the pad of the electrical card, while the detect contact lastly come into contact with the corresponding pad of the electrical card. As a result, the shortest ground contact and the longest detect contact cooperate to form a detect switch. The detect switch is not closed until the detect contact electrically contact with the corresponding pad of the IC card. The power source on the electronic apparatus begins to provide power for the IC card unless the detect switch is closed.
However, with the trend of miniaturization of electronic apparatus, the card connector must be more compact accordingly. Apparently, in the case where the card identification switch by arranging two respective contacts at farthest end of the card connector, such a composition tends not only to make the connector structure complex but also to increase the cost of the card connector accordingly.
Hence, an improved contact structure of the electrical connector is desired to overcome the above problems.